How We View God Life in a Tent, Pt. 2 Allan McCullough Grace Hill Church October 22, 2017 I. PRAYER i. Would you humble us underneath youself and help us to see you as all- powerful, all-wise, and perfectly good. II. INTRODUCTION a. Imagine a soccer ball.. i. And that soccer ball was the sun. • And we were to scale the size of the sun down to a standard soccer ball. ii. If we did that, you know how big earth would be? • A grain of rice broken in half. iii. And if we wanted to place the soccer ball at the right distance from our half grain of rice on the same scale that earth is from the sun, we would have to place it about 24 meters away. • So, maybe past that back wall out on the sidewalk somewhere. iv. Now our sun is 150 million kilometers away from earth. • You know how far the next closest start is? • 4.4 lightyears away. • Insert that into our scale model here, we would need to put the next soccer ball in Zurich, Switzerland. b. Our universe is so large and so vast, it is incomprehensible to us. i. And we believe that our God spoke this universe into existence with the words of his mouth. • We believe that he is so powerful, so wise, so genius, that he could craft our universe through speaking. 1 1. Colossians 1:16-17 – “For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” 2. God was there before this universe, God is origin of the universe, and God literally holds the universe in his hand. 3. And he sustains it and he can end it when he wants. 4. That’s how big our God is. That’s how wise and all-knowing our God is. ii. So, think about this. How big? How wise? How significant is our nation on the face of that half grain of rice? • What about our town? How big is Herndon on the face of that half grain of rice? • What about you and me? How big are we? How smart are we in this small slice of time on the face of that half grain of rice? iii. So, let me ask you a question – what do we do when we form opinions and convictions about what is right, true, and good and it disagrees with God? • What do we do if we form desires that we want to act upon and those desires are something that God has said are not good. • What do we do when a group of human beings that exist on the face of the half grain of rice – a society or a culture – what happens when they form opinions and convictions that disagree with God? iv. That’s what we want to talk about this morning. 2 III. SERIES RECAP a. We are in a series right now called “Life in a Tent.” i. And this is a series where we are studying 2 Corinthians 5 together verse by verse. • We are studying one chapter in one letter written by the Apostle Paul to a church located in Corinth, which is in Greece. • And in the section of the letter that we are reading, Paul explains to his readers and to us his worldview. ii. Now, two weeks ago when we began this series, we studied the first five verses and we asked the question: How should we view ourselves? • And Paul uses the analogy of a tent. 1. We should view our lives and our bodies like a tent. 2. It’s temporary. It’s not really that desirable. It’s fragile. We experience pain and suffering in this life. 3. We live in a broken world that has been corrupted by sin against God. 4. And so, as we live our lives in this tent, we long for and we groan for a life that is not like a tent but Paul says is like a building. 5. Permanent. Stable. Comfortable. 6. And Paul says that God has promised us, he has guaranteed us as followers of Jesus that one day, after this life, we will get the building. 7. We will live with Him in His Kingdom where our bodies are immortal and there is no pain and suffering for all of eternity. 3 iii. And so, as we move to the next few verses here in 2 Corinthians 5, we are going to be asking the question: How Then Should We View God? IV. 2 CORINTHIANS 5:6-10 a. Read 2 Corinthians 5:6-10 b. So, in v.6-8 here, Paul says that we are always of good courage. i. Why? • Because although we live in a tent and we long and groan for what is next…for a better life…and we know it’s coming! • We know that this life is not all there is and the best is yet to come…a building from God. ii. So, Paul says we live this life here by faith and not by sight. • To live by faith is to live according to something that you cannot see, you cannot fully explain, and you cannot control. 1. Living by sight is to live according to something that you can see, something you can explain, something you can control. 2. As we live life in a tent, we automatically live by sight and not by faith. • Example: The other night at dinner. 1. We fixed our family some grilled chicken and broccoli. 2. Now, my two-year-old daughter loves broccoli. My three-year-old son, not so much. 4 3. See, my son lives his life by sight. He saw something on his plate that was green and immediately decided that he did not like it, it was going to taste bad, and he wasn’t going to eat it. 4. But, what mommy and daddy were trying to tell him was that we melted some cheese over it and put lots of salt on it. 5. We doctored it up to make it good! 6. So, we’re trying to get our son to have some faith in us. C’mon buddy, you’ll like it. Just try the broccoli. 7. But our son was determined to live by sight and not eat his broccoli. 8. So, what happened next? 9. Well, of course, mommy and daddy bribed our son so he tried the broccoli and guess what, he liked it and ended up eating all of the broccoli! 10. It turned out that mommy and daddy had a more informed perspective on the broccoli than our son. We made it good! • Don’t we live the same way? 1. We live our lives according to what we can see, our opinions, our interpretation, our desires, our preferences… 2. And it is so hard to live our lives according to faith trusting that maybe just maybe the God who holds the universe in the palm of his hand had a higher and better perspective than those of us who live on the face of that half grain of rice. 5 iii. So in the first part of the series, we learned that our worldview impacts the way we live our lives. • If I live by sight and have the worldview that this life is all there is and I have to make the best of it. 1. Then I will spend my life trying to construct this building that I long for out of the things of this world. 2. I will look to the world and the things that I can see and control to satisfy my deepest longings. • But if I live by faith that this life is not all there is, the best is yet to come, and right now God has sent me to live in this tent on assignment from him… 1. Then I am free to live this life according to his Word and not fearing that my deepest longings are going to go unaddressed or I am going to miss out. 2. Having faith that God knows just a bit more than I do about where true joy is found. iv. So, this week, as we read our text, we also see that our worldview impacts our view of God. • If I live my life by sight as if this life is all there is, than this shows that my view of God is: 1. He is not there at all – atheism. 2. He is there but he is not involved nor does he care how I live my life – deism. 3. Or maybe it just shows a plain rejection of God. 6 • But, if I live by faith that this life is not all there is, the best is yet to come, and right now God has sent me to live in this tent on assignment from him… 1. Then this shows that my view of God is that he is a personal God who cares about my life… 2. He is all-powerful, all-knowing, and perfectly good. 3. He is worthy of my faith and trust. 4. He is trustworthy to handle my deepest longings. v. Therefore, Paul says in v.9 – “So, whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please Him.” • My goal in this life is to live my life in a way that is honoring to him.